Health troubles persist
for 9/11 rescue workers
James Zadroga, the first death linked by an autopsy to toxins at the site. Accusations that federal safety oversight at Ground Zero was lax — a charge that federal officials vigorously deny. A class-action lawsuit has been filed alleging that the agency made false reassurances about the air quality at the site. About 40,000 workers need help as rare lung diseases emerge.
NYC: Coal ash more dangerous than smoking six packs a day: What’s your risk as a New Yorker?
May 8, 2009
Environmental Health Examiner Janelle Adsit
Environmental Health Examiner Janelle Adsit
if you missed the NYC 311 nicotine-weaning program, best of luck as you try to quit anyway.
Here’s something that’s more dangerous than smoking six packs a day: coal ash. This claim is made by Earthjustice in a report titled “Coal Ash: A National Problem Needs a National Solution.” Coal is linked to many of our worries: acid rain, the greenhouse effect, cancer…And it’s more radioactive than nuclear waste, according to Scientific American.
The EPA estimates that up to 1 in 50 nearby residents could get cancer from exposure to arsenic leaking into drinking water wells from unlined waste ponds that mix ash and coal refuse. And there are at least 427 waste ponds. More than 100 millions tons of various toxic wastes result from our nation’s coal-fired power plants. What’s your estimated exposure level as a New Yorker? Click here to find out.
Is there good news? A coal-fired power plant was canceled in Michigan on May 1st. The Economist reports that it is the 97th to be rejected since 2001, and the ninth this year. The number of planned coal plants across the country is down from 150 to 60 in the past five years. The Economist cites Energy Information Administration data that more than 600 coal-fired plants still produce about half of America’s power, and the Energy Information Administration expects coal to be responsible for 47% of our power supply in 2030. But the government has pledged to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
Coal ash still isn’t getting the press time it deserves, although the Charleston Gazette reports that an ash-impoundment failure in Eastern Tennessee has raised awareness levels.
Study: Asthma rates high for 9/11 workers
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
August 28, 2007
WASHINGTON — A new survey of Sept. 11-related illnesses has found an alarming increase in asthma — 12 times higher than normal — among those who toiled on the toxic debris piles of ground zero.
The study was released Monday by the New York City Department of Health, based on responses gathered by the World Trade Center Health Registry.
The data show 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers in the registry reported developing asthma after working at the site — more than 12 times the expected figure for adults over a similar time period.
“The risk was significantly elevated for fire and rescue workers, medical workers, and police and military personnel compared to volunteers,” according to the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Firefighters, police officers, construction workers and volunteers swarmed to the site immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. While most of them were from New York, hundreds or more came from across the country to help in the moment of national crisis.
Overall, workers who arrived at the disaster site on the day of the attacks and stayed more than 90 days reported the highest rate of new asthma — 7 percent.
Volunteers accounted for almost one-third of those responding to the survey; firefighters accounted for about 14 percent.
Workers who reported wearing protective respirators on Sept. 11 and 12, when the contamination was at its worst, had lower risk of developing adult-onset asthma, the study found.
“These findings reflect the critical importance of getting appropriate respiratory protection to all workers as quickly as possible during a disaster, and making every effort to make sure workers wear them at all times,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the city’s health commissioner.
The results buttress previous research that found 70 percent of those who worked at ground zero later suffered lung problems.
The doctors who conducted that study said they expect thousands to need treatment for 9/11 illnesses, and New York politicians, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have pushed for a $1.9 billion program to treat those workers.
The authors of the new asthma study cautioned the findings are based on self-reporting by those answering their survey questions, so they cannot verify diagnoses or rule out over-reporting by those who responded.
The authors also said there is little pre-existing data on the prevalence of asthma among first responders — but separate research published by Swiss doctors in March in the medical journal Chest found asthma was “considerably underdiagnosed in firefighters.”
The World Trade Center Health Registry was launched in 2003 to track the long-term health effects of ground zero exposure to workers, volunteers, and residents.
